1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and, more particularly, to a door-closing device for a refrigerator, which enables a door of the refrigerator to be automatically closed when the door is opened to a predetermined angle or less.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator generates cool air by a refrigerating cycle, and supplies the cool air into storage compartments to maintain the freshness of food stored in the storage compartments for a desired period of time.
A typical refrigerator includes a cabinet opening at a front face thereof with a storage compartment therein, and a door hingedly coupled to the front face of the cabinet to open and close the storage compartment.
The door includes upper and lower hinge shafts joined to both ends of a side thereof, which serve as a rotating axis, and the cabinet includes upper and lower hinge holes at upper and lower panels thereof, corresponding to the upper and lower hinge shafts. Accordingly, the door is swingably coupled to the cabinet by the upper and lower hinge shafts fitted in the hinge holes, to open and close the storage compartment.
A conventional refrigerator has a door-closing device that allows a door to be automatically closed when the door is opened to a predetermined angle or less. The door-closing device allows the door to be automatically closed even when the door is not correctly closed due to a user's carelessness, thereby preventing cool air in the storage compartment of the refrigerator from leaking out.
The conventional door-closing device includes a hinge bracket attached to a lower end of the door, a hinge shaft, an auxiliary hinge shaft spaced apart from the hinge shaft, and an actuating lever attached to the cabinet and hingedly connected to the auxiliary hinge shaft at the front end of the actuating lever. A restoring unit is provided at a rear end of the actuating lever to retract the actuating lever into the cabinet when the door is opened. Accordingly, when the door is opened by a predetermined angle or less, the actuating lever is rearwardly moved to the stored potential energy of the restoring unit, thereby allowing the door, connected to the actuating lever via the auxiliary hinge shaft, to be automatically closed.
The actuating lever includes a coupling hole in which the auxiliary hinge shaft is fitted. A grommet, which is adapted to sheathe the auxiliary hinge shaft, is fitted into the coupling hole of the actuating lever to prevent abrasion of the auxiliary hinge shaft and the actuating lever during opening and closing operations of the door. The lower end of the auxiliary hinge shaft i has a coupling portion with an external diameter smaller than that of the remaining portion of the auxiliary hinge shaft to enable the coupling portion to be fitted into the grommet. Because the grommet includes a flange at an upper end thereof, which is supported on an upper surface of the actuating lever adjacent to the coupling hole, the grommet is stably retained in the coupling hole of the actuating lever without separating from the actuating lever.
In the conventional refrigerator, although grease is usually applied to the coupling hole of the actuating lever into which the grommet and the auxiliary hinge shaft are fitted to facilitate opening and closing operations of the door and to prevent abrasion of the components associated with the coupling hole, the grease applied to the coupling hole and the actuating lever may detract from the appearance of the cabinet because extraneous substances such as dust may adhere to the grease due to exposure to the external environment.
Furthermore, because the grommet is made of a plastic material produced by injection molding while the auxiliary hinge shaft and the actuating lever are made of metal, the flange of the grommet, which is interposed between the auxiliary hinge shaft and the actuating lever, may wear and thus generate undesired noise due to the repeated opening and closing operations of the door.